Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A false dawn in Manchester

Honestly, even though it was far-fetched and eight shades of absurd, I'm disappointed Stephen Ireland won't be lining up next to Kaká in the center of midfield at Eastlands. I particularly enjoyed the wrinkle that would have brought Gattuso and the he-was-fading-and-done-four-years-ago Dida along with Kaká to City. Say what you will about the gross amounts of money City's new oil-rich owners are flinging around in a worldwide recession, the sheikh has a sense of style and that counts for something.

It reminds me of 1980s WWF legend The Million Dollar Man. So in love with their own wealth are City's owners, anybody can be bought, anything can happen at City – Kaká even. And he'll bring along his best friends and everyone will score goals. Before you know it, perhaps even Jintao himself will become subordinate to the Man City All-Stars?

Well, not quite.

City's money bags rolled into Milan the other day with all the bravado of Ted DiBiase in that clip above: "I can buy happiness. I can buy love. And if I want to, I can even buy you."